THEATRE REVIEW: A Tale Of Two Cities - The Lowry Theatre, Salford.

This was a very intriguing production from Lost Dog and a very different take on one of Dickens’s more famous novels. Interestingly, a touring production last year titled, ‘Dracula The Untold Story’, was not really about Dracula at all but exploring what might have later happened to the character Mina Harker. In the same way, this show isn't really a tale of two cities at all but an exploration of the character Lucie, of whom Dickens hadn't provided a lot of detail, even though she was the central female character with a psychological complexity which deserved exploration.

Lovers of Dickens’s world will not find any Victoriana in this production, which places Lucie very much in the 21st century. This complex show is multi-media employing acting, dance, mime, video and music, delivering a constant pace and frequent surprises as well as breaking the fourth wall on several occasions. The devise of making a documentary was employed as a means of tying together isolated parts of Lucie’s story, providing interesting dramatic opportunities for story-telling. In addition to all that, an actor left of the stage gave constant sign-language interpretation of the dialogue. This was certainly a production displaying considerable creativity, providing powerful visual imagery.

The set of a house with the front-facing roof cut away was deceptively conventional in appearance because the inside facing roof doubled as a very original video screen with the action taking place in front of the house and, through video, inside and also behind. The use of cameras following the actors was cleverly blended with animated effects on screen, adding to the documentary feel of the production.

Musically, the play was eclectic as the medium's use with much of the violent, mimed scenes was accompanied by a female operatic singer, giving a cinematic feel whilst other action scenes had impassioned orchestral sounds, reminiscent of a number of Hollywood Vietnam war movies making use of classical music. A pistol duel took place against a song not dissimilar to the dark and disturbing ‘The End’ by the Doors with towards the end of the show, Kate Bush-like female singing employed culminating in a song passionately sung live by one of the cast.

There was dramatic intensity in several scenes, with powerful acting from the entire cast giving ways to expressive movement. On occasion, the dance elements were taken to excess. In one instance, after the description of three failed attempts to hang an aristocrat, to illustrate the successful execution, a digital clock appeared on the screen and counted down for over three minutes whilst an actor performed continuously what was almost a break dance. The duel scene, which started as drawn pistols, evolved into a warm embrace and from that into a dance with elements of tango before one of the duo hit the floor.

‘A Tale Of Two Cities’ was not always easy to follow but it was not meant to be a rendition of the novel or even a bio-drama but rather to focus on a number of dramatic occasions in Lucie’s life and her interactions with other characters. Perhaps the title was somewhat misleading; the not-dissimilar Dracula production had the added words ‘The Untold Story’, and to an extent, this was the case here. It was a powerful production showing considerable originality in multi-media presentation as well as skilful blending of mime and dance. The acting was intense and emotive and the production was an effective showcase of the varied creative repertoire of Lost Dog. The story was not easy to follow and this was the one area where there was room for considerable improvement but overall, a dynamic, engaging and very original production.

Reviewer - John Waterhouse
on - 15/3/22